Online budget hotel marketplace expanding in PHL

REDDOORZ has partnered with 100 hotels in the Philippines. — COURTESY OF REDDOORZ

By Vincent Mariel P. Galang

UNBRANDED HOTELS can now be as competitive as big-name hotels thanks to RedDoorz, an online budget hotel marketplace.

RedDoorz works with budget accommodation owners in Southeast Asia to standardize their offerings, whether its hotels, resorts, inns or guesthouses.

In an interview on Dec. 7, Rishabh Singhi, RedDoorz chief operating officer, said these budget accommodation owners usually don’t have the resources to maintain their properties or have a budget for marketing.

“We help these kinds of hotels who are in dire need of customers and marketing… They do not want the hassle of selling by themselves. We come in handy there,” he said.

Called by some as the “Uber for hotel rooms,” RedDoorz’s name was inspired by the most common color in the flags of Southeast Asian countries, plus the company’s goal to be always open, thus the door.

RedDoorz partners with the property owners to market their hotels, inns, resorts or other types of accommodations on the platform. RedDoorz also provides the property staff with technology and basic customer service training to ensure a standard quality of service is maintained throughout the different properties.

RedDoorz also handles customer feedback, pricing, and sales for the property owners, allowing them to focus on the business.

“The kind of technology that we have that we provide our partners have them to save a lot of time on daily chores and gives an opportunity to invest that time to more important stuff, which is… the real hospitality stuff,”Mr. Singhi said.

“We’re trying to solve the problem of this unnamed, unbranded, small, mom and pop hotel, and there are lots of them. We are solving the problem for them, trying to give them the brand, technology and training. To be more open to the new age millennial customer and to have the kind of services that the customers are expecting,” he added.

Through RedDoorz, Mr. Singhi noted their partner-property owners have seen income increase by three times in just three months.

“By joining RedDoorz, a partner typically triples their income… Because of the brand, because of the marketing that we do for them, because of the trainings that we give them… it completely transforms their business,” Mr. Singhi said.

Aside from the business travelers, RedDoorz wants to attract tech-savvy millennials.

“The millennial population right now in the Philippines is very tech-savvy. They understand technology. They carry mobile phones. They use the internet… Second thing is that the income levels of this millennial age group and the population of the millennials… it’s the highest populated segment in Southeast Asia, and the income levels are not that great. So, we are trying to bring in a new accommodation option for them,” Mr. Singhi said.

Operating in the Philippines for only eight months now, RedDoorz has already partnered with 100 hotels, surpassing its full-year target of 50. There are now 2,500 rooms in Metro Manila, Davao, Tagaytay, and Cebu available on the platform.

“Philippines is currently the second biggest market after Indonesia… We are very committed and very bullish about the Filipino market… We want to double our business by May of next year… Go deeper into the cities that we are operating in currently. Also, maybe open a couple of more cities,” Mr. Singhi said.

Established in 2015, RedDoorz began in Indonesia, where it is now present in 26 cities with 11,000 rooms. It is also present in Singapore and Vietnam.